


hold on to me as we go

by burritosong



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Domestic Fluff, F/M, Future Fic, Moving In Together, Trans Female Character, Trans Male Character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-04
Updated: 2015-02-04
Packaged: 2018-03-10 11:16:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,057
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3288317
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/burritosong/pseuds/burritosong
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Yamaguchi and Tsukishima move into their first apartment together and promptly drown in an ocean of boxes.</p>
            </blockquote>





	hold on to me as we go

**Author's Note:**

> Title from Phillip Phillips' "Home"

There were boxes everywhere and, honestly, neither of them had realized just how much stuff they each had until it was time to pack it all up. Yamaguchi surveyed the scene with growing horror. It had taken hours to move everything into her and Tsukki's new apartment, and they still had some serious unpacking to do if they didn't want to sleep on the bare floor tonight.

And she definitely wanted to sleep. Right now, in fact. Because moving was exhausting and she was exhausted.

She pushed a few boxes aside with her foot, making enough room on the floor for herself to lay down. She was just beginning to doze off when the sound of footsteps pushed her back to wakefulness, and she opened her eyes to find Tsukki hovering over her.

"How is he?" she asked, referring to the very reason why moving had been such a difficult ordeal in the first place. It was hard to find an apartment that would allow for a 155 cm iguana, and in the end the only building they could find was one without an elevator.

At least they were only on the third floor.

"He climbed in a box and doesn't want to come out," Tsukishima answered sourly, referring to his ten year-old iguana Iggy. "What are you doing?"

"I wanted to lie down but our mattresses are over there," Yamaguchi listlessly waved her arm in the vague direction of what would be their bedroom, "and I'm so tired I just gave up and ended up here. Why do we have so much stuff?"

Tsukishima gave a half-hearted shrug. "Where do you want me to start?"

"You don't have to, I'll help," she said, closing her eyes to blink away the sleep still clinging to her mind.

When she opened them she was face to face with a bag of fast food being dangled above her.

"Was I asleep?"

"For a while." Tsukishima gave the bag he was holding a shake. "I got food."

She finally sat up and took the bag from him, digging in to find a burger and large order of fries. Around her several boxes were opened and partially unpacked, although it looked as if Tsukki had just taken things out and set them on the floor orbiting the box they had been in.

"I wasn't sure where you wanted things to go," Tsukishima admitted, staring at his food with what she knew was his bashful face.

"We'll figure it out together," she said, sounding surer than she felt.

They finished eating, and then sat silently staring at the sea of boxes surrounding them.

"It almost doesn't seem real," Yamaguchi finally said. "I've wanted this for so long and now that we're here, I keep waiting to wake up and find out it was just a dream."

When they were younger, they had both assumed that they would go to the same university, share a dorm, and then share an apartment. So the day that they had both realized that the best place for them to study was different places, it had been a huge hitch in their plans for their future together. But after four years of school, five months of internships, and another six months of them searching for jobs within reasonable distance of each other, they were finally on track again—together, and in their first apartment.

Quiet stretched leisurely between them. She had long ago grown used to the silence on Tsukki's half of their conversations, could read his answers to her questions in the movement of his shoulders, the tilt of lips, the furrowing of his brow. So when he stood and wandered over to a box in the far corner and rummaged through it for a moment, she knew what he was going to say before he stood and turned to face her.

"We can make it feel real," he said, holding out the bag of plastic glow in the dark stars that used to adorn the ceiling of her childhood bedroom.

What followed was almost four hours of Tsukki standing on a chair, pressing the stars to the ceiling of their living room according to her directions ("A centimeter to the right—no, my right.") until the artificial constellations above their heads matched the ones they couldn't see in the sky above.

"We should put your dinosaurs up next," Yamaguchi insisted, newly enthused by the familiar sight of the pale greenish stars.

Tsukki perked up instantly, excitement showing clearly on his face, and Yamaguchi had to bite her lip to keep from laughing. Sometimes she just couldn't believe how much she loved the giant dinosaur nerd.

Not that she was really in any place to call him a nerd, considering that she was the one who insisted on arranging the glow stars to match the constellations that would be in the night sky above them.

It took them almost an hour to set up the shelves and locate all the boxes with Tsukishima's collection. What had started as a few cheap toy store figures had blossomed to include more anatomically correct models and fossils. Once they were arranged, they formed a representation of several eras of geologic time that spanned the entire length of a wall, all kept behind shiny glass doors to protect them from one very curious iguana.

Not that their walls were very long to begin with.

"Tsukki," Yamaguchi said very seriously, after they had both resumed silently staring at the sea of boxes, "I think we have too much stuff."

"We should put the boxes of clothes in the bedroom," he said after a beat. "It just seems like too much because all the boxes are in one room."

They both continued to stand there, not moving.

"Tsukki," she said again, "we made a mistake by not labeling any of the boxes."

"That's—" Tsukishima frowned, looking very much like the very existence of all their boxes was offending him. At this point, it certainly wouldn't surprise Yamaguchi. "You might be right," he admitted.

Yamaguchi sighed and reached for the nearest box so she could figure out what was in it.

"I'm going to check on Iggy," Tsukishima announced, before retreating to the move-stressed iguana's room.

Yamaguchi knew he was worried about Iggy. The iguana was already showing signs of stress, spending the entire day hiding in a box and refusing to eat. Tsukki had said that it could take weeks for Iggy to get used to his new home, and had insisted on setting up Iggy's habitat before doing anything else so that he could start acclimating to his new home.

She was just grateful that she was able to leave her hedgehog Lyra with her parents while they moved. Tsukki hadn't been as lucky because Iggy tolerated only one other person taking care of him other than his owner, and that was Yamaguchi.

It would help if everything was unpacked and all the commotion associated with moving could come to a stop.

Yamaguchi unpacked some books, stacking them against a wall, figuring that would have to do for now since all their shelves were being used as a shrine to the long-extinct.

It wasn't until she'd sorted through all the boxes, moving the ones carrying their clothes, bedroom supplies, and bathroom necessities to their respective rooms, when she realized almost two hours had passed. With a start she stared at the clock on her phone, aggressively proclaiming it was well after one in the morning.

She padded over to Iggy's room and quietly opened the door to peer in to the darkened room.

Tsukishima was laying on the floor, face down and snoring quietly. Beyond him, Yamaguchi could just make out the curl of a tail sticking out from behind a box.

"Tsukki," she said, walking over so she could kneel by him. "Tsukki, wake up."

He woke with a start, jerking way from her before sitting up. He blinked at her owlishly and she laughed, leaning forward to rest her head on his shoulder.

"Let's go to bed."

Tsukki hummed, leaning his head against hers, and Yamaguchi smiled. This, right here, sitting with her boyfriend in an apartment filled with boxes, was the happiest moment of her life.

Of course, moments don't last forever.

"We made a mistake," Tsukishima announced.

"We made a mistake," Yamaguchi agreed.

They were surveying their bedroom. More specifically—the empty space in their bedroom where there bed was supposed to be.

Their mattresses were leaning against one wall, opposite the boxes Yamaguchi had carried in earlier, and the frame itself was in pieces on the floor.

"Maybe if we stare at it long enough it'll assemble itself," Yamaguchi said hopefully.

Tsukishima gave her a blank look.

"I'll drag the blankets out. We can sleep on the floor."

"Let's sleep in the living room," Tsukishima said as he made his way to the bathroom to brush his teeth.

"Next time we move, we'll just set up the bed first," she called over her shoulder as she lugged an armful of blankets to the living room.

From the bathroom, she heard Tsukishima make a disgusted noise, and when he emerged a few minutes later he was frowning.

"We are never moving again," he said decisively. "This is too much work to do more than once."

Yamaguchi chuckled. "Okay, Tsukki."

"Go wash up, I'll finish here," Tsukki said, bending down to straighten out the fluffy mass that was every single blanket and sheet they owned.

As she passed him, he reached out to grab her by the waist. She turned toward him curiously.

"I'm happy we're together," he said, not meeting her eyes. A flush was quickly crawling up his neck to paint his face pink.

Tsukishima wasn't the type to make obvious declarations of his feelings. Words came hard to him when he wasn't being defensively sarcastic, and Yamaguchi was used to him showing his feelings more often than speaking them. But Yamaguchi had years of practice in interpreting what he meant.

_I'm happy we're together_ , was so much more than just those four words. It was, _thank you for being patient with me_ , and, _I'm glad you see a future for us too_. But more importantly, it was _I love you._

"I'm happy we're together too, Tsukki."

She leaned up to kiss him before slipping out of his arms.

When she came back, Tsukki had finished laying the blankets out and had even managed to find their pillows.

"We should have taken my parents' up when they offered to give us a futon."

"Tsukki, where would even put it? We already can't figure out where to put what we already have."

He hummed his agreement as he made his way over to turn out the lights.

"Why did you want to sleep in the living room, anyway?" Yamaguchi asked as she laid down. Although, she was so tired that it didn't really make a difference. She could probably fall asleep standing up at this point.

"You'll see," Tsukishima said. "Now close your eyes."

She shut her eyes and heard the click of the light switch, followed by a muffled curse as Tsukki stumbled over a box in the dark.

Finally, she felt his warmth settle beside her, tugging the blankets up before throwing an arm around her.

"Now open them," he said, the whisper of his voice close to her ear.

Yamaguchi opened her eyes to the swirl of white-green constellations shining above her, just like they always had since she was ten.

She gasped.

" _Oh_."

"Does it feel real now?" Tsukishima asked her.

It took her a moment to remember their conversation hours earlier. _It doesn't feel real_ , she had said then, and of course Tsukki had remembered. Through all of these years, he had always been there when she needed him—even if he hadn't realized it.

She had never imagined, that first day when they met, that this was where she would find herself. And even now, with the familiar shine of plastic stars overhead, it didn't feel real—not at all. It felt like a dream. A dream filled with too many boxes and a homesick iguana and—best of all—her best friend who she was madly in love with.

It was so much better than real.

"It feels like home."

**Author's Note:**

> I spent two hours reading an 80 page pamphlet on iguana care this morning just so I could write this fic.


End file.
